As a splendidly informed father-son story with gut-busting gags and a banging soundtrack, I genuinely imagine that 1995’s A Goofy Film, by which the basic Disney character (voiced by Invoice Farmer) takes the reluctant Max (Jason Marsden), on an ill-fated street journey, is among the greatest Disney animated films of all time. Thus, I used to be deeply stunned to be taught from a brand new documentary referred to as Not Only a Goof that the movie was not properly obtained within the Nineties and was not an enormous hit on the field workplace, both.
Nevertheless, even that shouldn’t be probably the most stunning revelation from the brand new 2025 film (now out there with a Disney+ subscription), which covers the filmmakers’ wrestle to make sure their imaginative and prescient for Goofy’s first function was totally realized. One such roadblock was a suggestion to herald an in any other case beloved comedy legend to play the title position.
Jeffrey Katzenberg Proposed Casting Steve Martin As Goofy
In Not Only a Goof, director Kevin Lima remembers exhibiting an early minimize of A Goofy Film to Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was chairman of Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, as THR remembers, and he responded with a shocking word. He felt that longtime Goofy voice actor Invoice Farmer’s conventional tackle the character (who shouldn’t be precisely a canine like Pluto, however associated to the identical household) sounded too “insincere,” as co-writer Brian Pimenthal describes it.
As an answer, Katzenberg (later often known as the founding father of Quibi) thought-about rerecording the complete film with A-list comic Steve Martin, not doing a Goofy impression however utilizing his pure voice. As somebody who adores Martin and his films, I imagine that this might have been a catastrophe, particularly after so many a long time of the long-lasting character’s distinct drawl, chuckle, and hollar, which Farmer had perfected. Fortunately, the director got here up with a plan.
Kevin Lima Satisfied Katzenberg To Rerecord The Film With Invoice Farmer’s Actual Voice
Lima beneficial that, earlier than giving Martin a name, Katzenberg ought to enable him to rerecord the film with Farmer utilizing his pure voice this time. The actor was not proud of the concept, and even remembers in Not Only a Goof dropping sleep over how audiences would possibly react to not listening to Goofy sound like Goofy.
Nevertheless, Lima assures within the doc that the complete rerecording course of was all a ploy to persuade Katzenberg that making A Goofy Film with out the signature voice was not amongst his higher concepts. Fortunately, after being proven a brand new minimize that includes Farmer with out the impression, Katzenberg got here to comprehend that he was incorrect, and Goofy remained Goofy.
You recognize, this was not even the primary time that Katzenberg ruffled feathers with a Disney film voice actor, as Robin Williams refused to reprise Genie within the first Aladdin sequel as a result of the exec tried to cease him from starring in Ferngully: The Final Rainforest. At the least his weird concept of casting Steve Martin as Goofy didn’t undergo, or A Goofy Film’s recognition won’t have endured over the previous 30 years.